UN Women Executive Board convenes First Regular Session 2018

UN Women Executive Board convenes for First Regular Session, with newly elected President of the Board and a briefing on the innovation strategy for accelerating efforts towards gender equality and the empowerment of women.
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Climate-smart agriculture improves livelihoods of rural women in Mali

Agriculture is a key sector to lift women out of poverty in Mali, but the increasing degradation of land and natural resources caused by climate change is making women more vulnerable. A UN Women programme is helping farmers adapt to these challenges.
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Six women athletes who are changing the game

As athletes from 93 nations fly to the Republic of Korea to compete in the 2018 Winter Olympics, we highlight six inspirational women who are breaking down gender barriers in sport.
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Highlights

Gender equality is a right. Fulfilling this right is the best chance we have in meeting some of the most pressing challenges of our time—from economic crisis and lack of health care, to climate change, violence against women and escalating conflicts. Check out new data, stories, videos and more illustrating how and why gender equality matters across all the Sustainable Development Goals.
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The theme for International Women’s Day, 8 March, is “Time is Now: Rural and urban activists transforming women’s lives”. Coming on the heels of unprecedented global momentum for women’s rights, equality, safety and justice, the theme highlights empowering women in all settings, rural and urban, and the activists who are working relentlessly to claim women’s rights and realize their full potential. Echoing the priority theme of the upcoming 62nd session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, International Women’s Day will also draw attention to the rights and activism of rural women, who make up over a quarter the world population and a significant majority of women in agricultural labour force.
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Bridging the gender gap in science is vital for achieving sustainable development and fulfilling the promise of the 2030 Agenda to “leave no one behind”. On International Day of Women and Girls in Science, 11 February, we take a stand for women and girls in science and work to break the stereotypes that hold them back. For a future that benefits women equally as men, now is the time to smash the gender bias and enable girls and women to access and excel in science.
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From the rise of the #Metoo movement to numerous new laws on violence against women and the conviction of the ‘butcher of Bosnia’ for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity, including sexual violence, this timeline is a selection of some of the noteworthy moments for women’s rights and gender equality from around the world this year.
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Violence against women Violence against women and girls manifests itself in many different forms. Whether at home, on the streets or during war, it is a human rights violation of pandemic proportions that takes place in public and private spaces.
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UN Women is committed to supporting the UN system to reach gender parity, based on its mandate to lead, promote and coordinate efforts to advance the full realization of women’s rights and opportunities.
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Featured publication

UN Women’s new flagship report provides a comprehensive and authoritative assessment of progress, gaps and challenges in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) from a gender perspective. The report monitors global and regional trends in achieving the SDGs for women and girls based on available data, and provides practical guidance for the implementation of gender-responsive policies and accountability processes.

In a speech at the UN Women Executive Board, First Regular Session of 2018, UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka spoke about the implementation of UN Women's new Strategic Plan,
and emphasized the importance of technology and collaboration in the new development landscape. More

Featured video

More than two years into the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, gender equality is fundamental to delivering on the promises of sustainability, peace and human progress. How far have we come in turning the 2030 Agenda into results for women and girls on the ground, and what is needed to bridge the remaining gaps between rhetoric and reality?

UN Women Watch

There are one million children in Gaza, yet hardly any sports fields or playgrounds. And this lack of safe outside play areas especially affects girls. The beach is basically off limits, with terrible sewage pollution. Youth unemployment is over 60 per cent.
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The United Nations human rights wing has called on the Latin American nation, El Salvador, to immediately halt the application of a law that unduly penalizes women for abortion-related offenses and to review all cases to ensure their compliance with international human rights standards.
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"I was so desperate, I had lost hope. Committing suicide seemed the only escape from the abuse, back then," Fatima* said in an interview earlier this month. "I didn't know how to handle the pain." A mother of eight, Fatima has been married for about two decades.
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At only 19, Michelle Zeledón, from the north of Nicaragua, has been through a lot. She watched her father beat her mother, and endured years of his verbal abuse. "One time, during the Holy Week, my dad tried to kill my mother," she told UNFPA.
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Early spring seeps through grimy windows, lighting a small unkempt apartment. The place is so dirty that Bibinur begins to feel nauseated. She finds a clear spot to sit down with Almagul, who recently gave birth to a baby boy.
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India - When a 13-year-old girl in the remote village of Darbhanga, in India's Bihar State, overheard her parents planning to marry her off to a 15-year-boy the very next day, she had little hope to stop it. Child marriage is a deep-rooted norm in her community.
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UN plan to improve climate resilience of women in the Sahel Women farmers have significantly less access to land, information, finance and agricultural inputs. This makes them more vulnerable to climate shocks, and affects their health and the food security and nutrition of the entire household.
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Princess Sarah Zeid of Jordan has completed her two-day visit to South Sudan where she witnessed firsthand the complexity and scale of the South Sudan crisis and met internally displaced people who shared their experiences with her.
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'SheFighter' Self-Defence Stokes Self-Confidence in Refugee Women Refugee women are at heightened risk for gender-based violence during the difficult experience of forced displacement. In Jordan, one group is getting a chance to learn self-defense a "SheFighter" technique that also focusses on building the women's self-esteem.
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In a year when the #metoo hashtag has inspired women across the globe to tell their personal tales of harassment and unwanted sexual advances in the workplace, a team of female television reporters in northern Afghanistan is promising to "leave no sister behind" by telling the often harrowing stories of Afghan women and girls trapped by abuse and gender-based...
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The relationship between United Nations peacekeepers and civilian staff and the vulnerable people in South Sudan they are working for must be one of mutual trust and confidence, said a senior UN official, noting that instances of sexual exploitation and abuse by UN personnel not only breaks down that relationship, it also destroys the trust communities...
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